WITH Christmas just a few weeks to
go, I am sure the idea
of gift-giving is very much in our mind. We either look forward to it
or are scared of it, or both. We know that something in us wants to
give gifts to our loved ones, but obviously there are some constraints
that we have to contend with. Availability of funds, for example.
This is where we have to be reminded of the whole theology
of gift-giving, which is not meant to spoil our spontaneous instinct
to give, but rather to deepen, purify and strengthen it, so that that
instinct would truly correspond to our ultimate dignity as persons and
children of God. That way we avoid being played around simply by
worldly motives.
Again, let’s acknowledge that in the end it’s our faith
that gives us the whole picture about this matter. That’s why we have
to go into the theology of it, and not just follow our blind impulses
and the intoxicating trends and the passing fads and fashions of the
times. It’s faith that gives us what is right and wrong about it.
We cannot deny—the pieces of evidence are just
aplenty—that this whole business of gift-giving is now often corrupted
by the viruses of commercialism and materialism, often provoking us to
envy, vanity and the like. The natural human desire to give is now
practically distorted by these powerful evil forces that seem to rule
the world today.
Let’s do our part to clarify and purify things to bring
out once again the true beauty of gift-giving. What is its basis, what
is its purpose, its pattern are some questions we need to answer
properly. Is it necessary and to be lived all the time, and how can it
be practicable in any circumstance we may find ourselves in?
It’s good that we have clear ideas about these points so
that we would be confident that we are doing things right. We avoid
having a fatalistic attitude to life. Rather, with this sure knowledge
of what we are doing, we would be fostering our true freedom.
Truth is we have to be gifts to one another. That’s simply
because we have been made by God out of sheer goodness, of complete
gratuitousness. And since we are his image and likeness, we have to
realize that we too are expected to treat God and others out of sheer
goodness and gratuitousness. That’s what being a gift is.
When we do something, we have to see to it that our
primary intention that should give the color to other intentions we
may have is to do that thing out of love of God, out of sheer
goodness.
This should be the constant and ultimate motive for all of
our thoughts, words and actions even if this motive is also
conditioned by some practical purposes. We should not allow this
radical motive to be compromised by the other practical motives that
we also are interested.
This truth about ourselves is somehow dramatized in that
gospel passage where Christ encourages us to say, after doing
something, even something heroic, “We are unprofitable servants, we
have done what we were obliged to do.” (Lk 17,10)
It’s a good slogan to keep in mind, a most helpful
reminder of how our attitude should be with respect to whatever deeds
and accomplishments we may have in life. Yes, we are just doing what
we ought to do, as God our Creator has designed and sanctioned it to
us.
Everything has to be done as an act of love, as an act of
gratuitous self-giving, as a gift. We have to so strengthen this
conviction as to enable us to resist the common temptation of doing
things because of the more practical reasons like to earn money, to
attain a certain sense of security, to amass wealth, power, fame, etc.
We have to remember that whatever we do can never be fully
quantified and translated in terms of money and some worldly criteria,
because our work is first of all a spiritual affair, requiring faith,
hope and charity. As such, it cannot be reduced to some quantifiable
terms, though, human as we are, with material and temporal needs, we
make what we consider as fair estimations of what is due to us
materially.
This is why we always need to rectify our intentions when
we work, so that we can always fulfill the basic law governing us—that
is, that we do everything as a gift, as an act of gratuitous love,
proper to our dignity.
of gift-giving is very much in our mind. We either look forward to it
or are scared of it, or both. We know that something in us wants to
give gifts to our loved ones, but obviously there are some constraints
that we have to contend with. Availability of funds, for example.
This is where we have to be reminded of the whole theology
of gift-giving, which is not meant to spoil our spontaneous instinct
to give, but rather to deepen, purify and strengthen it, so that that
instinct would truly correspond to our ultimate dignity as persons and
children of God. That way we avoid being played around simply by
worldly motives.
Again, let’s acknowledge that in the end it’s our faith
that gives us the whole picture about this matter. That’s why we have
to go into the theology of it, and not just follow our blind impulses
and the intoxicating trends and the passing fads and fashions of the
times. It’s faith that gives us what is right and wrong about it.
We cannot deny—the pieces of evidence are just
aplenty—that this whole business of gift-giving is now often corrupted
by the viruses of commercialism and materialism, often provoking us to
envy, vanity and the like. The natural human desire to give is now
practically distorted by these powerful evil forces that seem to rule
the world today.
Let’s do our part to clarify and purify things to bring
out once again the true beauty of gift-giving. What is its basis, what
is its purpose, its pattern are some questions we need to answer
properly. Is it necessary and to be lived all the time, and how can it
be practicable in any circumstance we may find ourselves in?
It’s good that we have clear ideas about these points so
that we would be confident that we are doing things right. We avoid
having a fatalistic attitude to life. Rather, with this sure knowledge
of what we are doing, we would be fostering our true freedom.
Truth is we have to be gifts to one another. That’s simply
because we have been made by God out of sheer goodness, of complete
gratuitousness. And since we are his image and likeness, we have to
realize that we too are expected to treat God and others out of sheer
goodness and gratuitousness. That’s what being a gift is.
When we do something, we have to see to it that our
primary intention that should give the color to other intentions we
may have is to do that thing out of love of God, out of sheer
goodness.
This should be the constant and ultimate motive for all of
our thoughts, words and actions even if this motive is also
conditioned by some practical purposes. We should not allow this
radical motive to be compromised by the other practical motives that
we also are interested.
This truth about ourselves is somehow dramatized in that
gospel passage where Christ encourages us to say, after doing
something, even something heroic, “We are unprofitable servants, we
have done what we were obliged to do.” (Lk 17,10)
It’s a good slogan to keep in mind, a most helpful
reminder of how our attitude should be with respect to whatever deeds
and accomplishments we may have in life. Yes, we are just doing what
we ought to do, as God our Creator has designed and sanctioned it to
us.
Everything has to be done as an act of love, as an act of
gratuitous self-giving, as a gift. We have to so strengthen this
conviction as to enable us to resist the common temptation of doing
things because of the more practical reasons like to earn money, to
attain a certain sense of security, to amass wealth, power, fame, etc.
We have to remember that whatever we do can never be fully
quantified and translated in terms of money and some worldly criteria,
because our work is first of all a spiritual affair, requiring faith,
hope and charity. As such, it cannot be reduced to some quantifiable
terms, though, human as we are, with material and temporal needs, we
make what we consider as fair estimations of what is due to us
materially.
This is why we always need to rectify our intentions when
we work, so that we can always fulfill the basic law governing us—that
is, that we do everything as a gift, as an act of gratuitous love,
proper to our dignity.
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